In recent years, inexpensive substitutes have been sought for brass and brass plated or anodized tubes used for decorative purposes. One substitute has been an aluminum tube coated with an epoxy material containing metallic brass flakes or powder. However, the coating produced on the aluminum tubes using the epoxy and metallic powder mixture has not been entirely satisfactory. The coatings have been afflicted with breakway lines and other imperfections which have rendered the use of such tubes undesirable in applications where the appearance of the tube has been of prime importance. Also, because the coating of the tube was a hand process, it has been both slow and expensive.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which can apply high quality metallic coatings to aluminum tubes both economically and at high output rates.
Another object is such an apparatus that can be adjusted to coat tubes of different diameters.
Another object is a method of quickly loading and unloading tubes relative to the coating apparatus.
Another object is to support thin aluminum tubes in a manner which will prevent collapse of the tubes during coating thereof.
Another object is to permit the safe removal of the coated tubes from their supports after coating without the necessity to wait for the coatings to completely dry.
Other objects may be found in the following specification, claims and drawings.